Extra Life and a Giveaway! (GIVEAWAY CLOSED)

Doing Play Live this summer gave me the opportunity to combine two things I really enjoy, playing video games and raising money and awareness for a good cause. And while I still continue to fundraise through Play Live, the atmosphere has changed a bit since the big summer event is over. I was looking for something to get that feeling back, and I found it in Extra Life. Having been a member of the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club for a while now, I was stoked that they had a team participating in Extra Life. I requested to join immediately, and was welcomed with open arms. 

What is Extra Life? Well, its much like Play Live, except this benefits Children's Miracle Network hospitals. And instead of just playing for a general organization, you can actually choose a hospital to support. I was fortunate enough to have one of our local hospitals be a CMN member, so I will be raising money for them. But every girl on Team IGGLES is raising money for a different hospital, and I think that's pretty amazing. The money raised is given to the specific CMN hospital the donor chooses and it is up to that hospital to decide how its used. It can be anything from research to supplies to paying medical costs of patients. 

This year's Extra Life event is October 25th. Its a 24 hour marathon of every type of gaming imaginable. Tabletop gaming has even been encouraged! I will be streaming Hearthstone every day this week in honor of the event, my Twitch account can be found here. 

And while I love a good reason to play games, I can't do this on my own. And that's where you come in, my fabulous readers. I have been lucky enough to partner up with Shawna of Scrawny Girl and Gwen of A Geek and Her Oven to offer one lucky reader some pretty awesome prizes. All you have to do is donate $5 to CMN. Easy peasy, right? In addition to these prizes, Shawna has given all readers a discount code to use in her shops, good until November 7th. Just type in EXTRALIFE for 25% off of your orders. Sweet!

Etsy Storenvy Blog

Storenvy Blog

In addition to these prizes, I will be giving away a copy of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Its gaming themed, and has more pop culture references than you can shake a stick at. Sounds like my kind of book :) Miscellaneous Halloween stickers and stationary will also be coming your way.

All rules regarding this giveaway can be found on the Rafflecopter widget in the Terms and Conditions section, but I'll give you a few basic ones. This giveaway starts today, October 13th and is open internationally!!! Yes! However, to be eligible, you have to donate $5 to Extra Life through my donor page (link in the Rafflecopter widget, also on the sidebar of this blog and right here). This is mandatory. If you lie about donating to open the other options, all of your entries will be disqualified. Giveaway and promo-only accounts are not allowed and all entries associated with them will also be disqualified. Contest ends on October 23, 2014 at Midnight Pacific Daylight Time. The winner will be chosen and notified by email on October 24. Winner then has 48 hours to respond to the email, or a new winner will be chosen. Thank you very much for donating and good luck!!

UPDATE 10/16/14: As announced yesterday on Twitter, if five people donate to Extra Life, a Loot Crate will be added as a prize. I will purchase the Loot Crate, then it will be sent directly to you from Loot Crate. The addition of the Loot Crate will put the prize value of this giveaway at over $60. Donate just $5 for over $60 worth of super awesome prizes. That's a pretty sweet deal. 

UPDATE 10/19/14/; The donating part of the giveaway is no longer mandatory, but is strongly encouraged. The Loot Crate will not be a part of the giveaway prizes unless five (5) people donate to Extra Life. 

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Play LIVE Recap

Monday, September 1st was the end of St Jude's summer gaming event Play LIVE. The team that I was on, Team TradeChat, raised $31,654! That's amazing! Overall, St Jude received over $530,000 in donations during the event. I think that is incredible. And they did too....because they have decided to open up Play LIVE for year round participation, with another big event next summer :) 

I don't think prizes will be offered during free play like the summer event. But, if you raise $100, you will receive a Play LIVE tee shirt. Also, if you're a student in need of service hours, your gaming can count! For every $100 you fundraise, you earn ten service hours.

This event was a learning experience for me, as most things seem to be lately. Soon I think I will be dropping my team affiliation and starting my own team. I'm not sure if anyone will want to join me, but there were some things about this team that I didn't like, and I want to do things my way. For example, I thought that it would be beneficial for the team to promote one another. Some of the people (mainly our team captain) had huge social media audiences. I thought that promoting others on the team would help the folks with smaller reaches make their goals, and the team would still be earning a lot of money. I mass emailed the team, and only got one response. I did notice though, that after my email the team captain did start promoting some people, but it was only the people earning thousands. Not any of the smaller people, which was my intention. When I start my team, I will promote everyone the best I can; with tweets, blog posts...whatever I can do to help. 

I learned that my laptop cannot handle streaming anything really graphic intensive. Or anything, really. Hearthstone is about the best I can do at the moment, and even then it lags a lot. Over time I hope to be able to step up my streaming game. Soon I should be able to use the video and voice features ( I was told that I would have had better luck with fundraising if I had been showing my face while streaming, not sure why), and by this time next year I should hopefully have a desktop computer that can handle streaming anything.

I also need sponsors, or at least the ability to buy better giveaway prizes. I think that would help a lot too. I noticed a lot of the really successful streamers were giving away awesome prizes in exchange for donations, so thats something I need to work on as well. 

I do owe a huge thank you to everyone that donated during the event though :) Your donations really meant the world to me, and I know that they will be put to good use at St Jude. 

If you're interested in donating to St Jude, you can donate here (I'm still trying to hit that $100 mark!) and if you'd like to join my team, email me at jenarynkrystelle(at)gmail(dot)com or leave a comment below :)

Play Live and Loot- $10 League of Legends Card! (GIVEAWAY CLOSED)

Hello everyone, and happy Friday! I am having another giveaway in support of St Jude. This time its for a $10 League of Legends card. I have been having a lot of fun streaming my game play, although my laptop can't seem to handle streaming WoW, so I've only been streaming Hearthstone.

Source.

The rules for the giveaway are outlined in the Rafflecopter widget, but I will briefly review them here. You have to donate to St Jude via my donor page to be eligible to win. You can donate $1 or $100, it doesn't matter. Every donation is greatly appreciated, and every donation counts as ten entries. Also, this one will be for US addresses only, and thats because the LoL card says its only valid in the United States. If you lie about donating to get access to the other entry options, all of your entries will be erased. If you use a giveaway account, you will be disqualified. This contest will end on Sunday, July 6, 2014 at midnight PDT. I will contact the winner by email. The winner then has 48 hours to respond, and if no response is received in that timeframe, a new winner will be chosen.

Thank you for your support and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So About That Last Giveaway.....

Congratulations to Nicole! You are the winner of the iTunes gift card! So check your email....its a lengthy one lol.

If an iTunes gift card wasn't your cup of tea, next week I will be giving away a $10 League of Legends card, good for the purchase of...whatever it is you buy in LoL.

This giveaway was a bit of an eye opener for me. I found that people didn't want to enter if they had to donate. I get that. Times are difficult. But for any of the giveaways I'm doing that are specifically to raise money for St Jude, that's going to be mandatory. The thing is, you don't have to donate a lot. You could donate one dollar and not only be eligible for the prize, but I would be pleased as punch that you donated. I hate that people might've felt like I was looking for a huge amount, because I'm not. Its true that I set my goal at $100 by today, and no, I haven't reached it, but that's okay. As long as I reach it by the end of the fundraiser (September 1st), I will still feel proud of  myself for accomplishing that goal. And I will be so grateful for everyone that helped me reach it (I'm already so thankful for the donations I've received.). I will be holding at least one giveaway thats not St Jude related (because I love you guys), but the option to donate will still be there (it just won't be mandatory).

With this giveaway I also learned that people will be deceitful, and that's so wrong. I advertise my giveaways on Instagram as a way to get fresh eyes to my blog. I had someone who seemed really interested in entering comment on it over there. Well.....she lied about donating to St Jude to unlock all the extra entries. And then she lied about the information needed for extra entries. I thought I was clear when I said that I verify. And the fact that the donating to St Jude option wasn't really an option, but was mandatory to unlock the rest....I don't understand how anyone could think it was okay to lie.

This whole thing has been a learning experience. I have to accept it as such and move on, and next week's giveaway will hopefully go a lot smoother.

Play Live Progress and a Tiny Blog Update

Happy Monday everyone! I am working hard to get some steady content back up here. Last month I took two online courses and a webinar that really gave me a lot to think about. The biggest one being- where the hell is the pillar content? I realize I lack it something fierce, so I'm trying to write some things that I think can be interesting and relevant for more than a month :)

Also, as you know, I am participating in St Jude's Play Live. I've been obsessing over it really. Learning how to stream on Twitch has been really fun, and I'm still trying to figure out how to talk on it lol. And its kind of exciting to see when people are watching my games. I'm a pretty private person by nature, and really not even that confident a gamer. I don't even talk in Vent when I play WoW, so putting my face on the screen while playing has been huge for me. I am sad though that I haven't gotten any donations yet, its a little disheartening. I still have the $15 iTunes gift card giveaway happening until the 20th, and nobody has entered :( There are no donation minimums, I cannot stress this enough. Even if you donate one dollar, its a help. I wish I could give you guys the great stuff like video games and headsets, but its just not financially in the cards for me right now. Maybe next year I can come into this with some sponsors, but right now I'm freeballin' it (for lack of a better expression).

The team I'm on (Team TradeChat) is currently number two in the leaderboards for most money raised. This is largely due to Danielle, as she has such a web presence. She really cares about this fundraiser, and I'd like to help her out. And in a really sad turn of events for her, her father passed away from cancer over the weekend. Loads of people asked what they could do for her, and she responded that she'd like them to donate to St Jude. She got a lot of troll lashback for it (which is so rude), but her asking makes perfect sense to me. Her father just died of cancer, and shes trying to help raise money for a place that not only takes care of cancer stricken children for free, but who also do research on cancer.

This post sounds really bitter. I will probably remove it in a fit of blogger's remorse later. Its just that when I focus on things, I really want them to turn out the best they can be. I really want to help Danielle raise all the money she set out to, not only for the St Jude's children, but now for her father. It makes me angry that so many people badmouthed her right after her father died, I want to prove them wrong, that what she's doing is a good thing. And selfishly, I'd like reach the goal I set for myself as well. I want to know that if I set my mind to something, I can achieve it.

Play Live is now LIVE! And There's Loot! (GIVEAWAY CLOSED)

Happy Friday the 13th everyone! Just a quick note to let you know that St Jude's Play Live fundraiser is now in fact, live. So donating can now begin :) As I stated in my previous post, it is my goal to raise $100 by June 20th, 2014 and if I did, I would have a giveaway. Well, I was perusing some of the other players' donor pages, and they are offering prizes throughout the fundraiser. A lot of them have business sponsors though, so their prizes are pretty neat (and pricey). And while I can't offer you things like new consoles or headphones, I can offer some smaller things that are still pretty cool. So I thought to get things started, I would offer up a $15 iTunes gift card. Its summertime, so that calls for conventions and road trips and barbeques....all things that require an awesome soundtrack. All I'm asking is that you make a donation to St Jude's through my donor page, and that's it. Once you donate, the other options to earn extra entries will unlock. Also, the donating option is open every day, so you can donate as frequently as you like. There is also no donating minimum, meaning you can donate as much or as little as you feel appropriate .

This giveaway is for US addresses only, and the reason for that is, I'm not sure how international donating works for the fundraiser. If one of my international readers would like to give it a try and let me know how it goes, I will gladly open this, and all future giveaway pertaining to the Play Live fundraiser internationally. The winner will be notified on June 21st, 2014 by email. From that time, the winner will have 48 hours to respond to the email or a new winner will be chosen. Accounts used for solely for giveaway purposes will be disqualified. Also, if you unlock the ability to tweet about the giveaway, please have your account public on June 21st. If you are private and I can't verify your tweet, that entry will be disqualified as well.

Thank you all so much for helping me reach this goal. Good luck!


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WoW Wednesday- Etsy Finds

Happy Wednesday! Here are some great WoW finds courtesy of Etsy.

Horde Nail Decals and Alliance Nail Decals by Sweet Graffix. 

WoW Ribbon by Mommacrafters. 

Leather Horde Bag by Forgiantica Leather.

Hearthstone Mug by castastone.

Darkmoon Banner by SummerWoodCrafts.

Murloc Wallet by World of Leathercraft.

There are a lot of really cool World of Warcraft items on Etsy right now! Its still mostly Horde dominated, but you can find some great Alliance things on there too, you just have to do a little digging :)

Don't forget, St Jude's Play Live fundraiser starts this Friday! I am taking part by live streaming some of my WoW and Heartstone game play. Please help me reach my goal of raising $100 by donating at http://playlive.stjude.org/krystellemt. Thanks! 

St. Jude's Play Live (Updated!)

Hello everyone! I am happy to share this awesome fundraiser that I have signed up to participate in, and I hope you'll sign up for it too.

As you know, I watch Danielle's videos on YouTube quite frequently. She was one of my favorite contestants on season one of King of the Nerds, and it was just major bonus points that she's also a fellow World of Warcraft player. So I was super excited to see this video, explaining her involvement in the upcoming St Jude fundraiser Play Live.
With all the buzz surrounding John Green's The Fault in Our Stars, childhood cancer is having a moment. Which is good, because awareness is never a bad thing. But cancer isn't just having a moment with me, its been a constant in my life. I've had family members that have fought long, hard battles with cancer that they ultimately lost. In my late teens/early twenties, I had precancerous cells removed from some pretty important parts. And since then, I've had a bevy of tumors removed from various other parts. Luckily those have all been benign, but at some point I figure my luck will run out.

I have signed up under Danielle's team (Team TradeChat) to fund raise for this event. Any donations I earn will go towards Danielle's ultimate goal of raising $100,000 for the hospital. I have set my goal at $100, and I hope you'll be there to help me reach it. If I can get five people to join the team by June 12th (the day before the fundraiser officially begins), I will hold a giveaway here on the blog. I have some Attack on Titan, Titanfall, League of Legends things to give away....and that's just for starters. If I can reach that $100 goal I've set for my team by June 20th, I will add in some more awesome prizes. I guess its like Kickstarter...or achievement unlocking. Help me reach my goals, and I'll reward you with awesome goodies :)

This is the first time I'll be live streaming anything, so I'm really nervous about it. I will be playing World of Warcraft and Hearthstone for the streams. I'm not the best player at either game, but I figure I need to get past my gaming insecurities so I can help out this great cause.

I really hope you'll join me on this adventure: http://playlive.stjude.org/krystellemt is my donor page info. Play Live runs from June 13th 2014- September 1st, 2014.

Everyone seems to take on causes whether they mean to or not, and cancer has always been one for me. This St Jude's fundraiser is a great way to support geeky guys and girls in their gaming endeavors while supporting a great cause like St Jude's. And even if cancer isn't your personal crusade, think of all the Augustuses (Augusti?) and Hazels out there that could benefit from St Jude's research and facilities.